You must have some personal motive for inquiring." "No more than a lawyer often has in the business of his clients.

I have been commissioned to obtain some information respecting these people--a mere matter of business, nothing more, believe me.

Call in again soon, and endeavour to bring Carson; but pray be discreet--be very careful to whom you mention the matter." "Never fear," said Mr.Morton, as he closed the door behind him, and sauntered lazily out of the house.
Mr.Morton speculated in stocks and town-lots in the same spirit that he had formerly betted at the racecourse and cockpit in his dear Palmetto State.

It was a pleasant sort of excitement to him, and without excitement of some kind, he would have found it impossible to exist.

To have frequented gaming hells and race courses in the North would have greatly impaired his social position; and as he set a high value upon that he was compelled to forego his favourite pursuits, and associate himself with a set of men who conducted a system of gambling operations upon 'Change, of a less questionable but equally exciting character.
Mr.Stevens sat musing at his desk for some time after the departure of his visitor; then, taking up one of the letters that had so strongly excited him, he read and re-read it; then crushing it in his hand, arose, stamped his feet, and exclaimed, "I'll have it! if I--" here he stopped short, and, looking round, caught a view of his face in the glass; he sank back into the chair behind him, horrified at the lividness of his countenance.
"Good God!" he soliloquized, "I look like a murderer already," and he covered his face with his hands, and turned away from the glass.